Given Richland Academy’s Children’s Rights Team leader, Ms. Amy Pitt’s involvement with the Rights Respecting Schools program in connection with UNICEF Canada, she was invited to attend the 2013: What’s Worth Knowing: Educating for Responsible Citizenship Symposium hosted by the education NGO Learning for a Sustainable Future. Ms. Pitt participated in this event with A.P. and K.D. from the Grade 6 class.

This event brought together over 125 senior decision makers in the government, business, and non-profit sectors, as well as educators and students from across Canada. The Symposium mobilized knowledge about the links between formal education and active youth engagement. LSF’s latest youth-designed project, The Our Canada Project, was also launched at this event. The Our Canada Project is an innovative platform for all Canadians to engage in conversations about the future and share their actions of responsible citizenship.

The Honourable David C. Onley, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, addresses Symposium participants

“At the symposium there was a group of young people that built a new website named the Our Canada Project. I thought that this was inspiring because it told me that any young people can do anything if they put their minds to it.”- A.P., Grade 6

Primarily, the questions the symposium sought to address were:

• What do children and youth need to know, do, and value in order to ensure they are responsible, active, and contributing citizens?
• How can formal education be reoriented to meet these goals?

The full report of the What’s Worth Knowing: Educating for Responsible Citizenship Symposium will be available for download shortly.

“I was proud to be invited to this invaluable symposium, asking such pertinent questions regarding education today. It was enlightening and energizing to take part in discussions with senior decision makers in the government, corporate, non-profit sectors, together with educators and students from across the country, all with the same goal; to strive to create an education sphere that fosters the active engagement of its young citizens. I think it’s amazing that K.D. and A.P. had a chance to take part in these valuable and potentially life changing conversations, and that their ideas will be part of LSF’s upcoming report.” – Ms. Pitt, Children’s Rights Team Leader and Performing Arts Teacher